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Henry’s Random Thoughts
2014 Cincinnati Reds SGA Bobbleheads
May 10-Homer Bailey Dual Bobblehead
38,000 people showed up for
a night game vs. the hot-hitting Rockies on May 10, about as close to a sellout
as one can expect in early May. They saw the Reds take an 11-2 thrashing, but
by the end of the weekend, the Reds got the last laugh by winning two out of
three in the series. The first 25,000 fans also got one of these bobbleheads of Homer Bailey. Since Bailey pitched his
second no-hitter last year and inked a generous contract extension, he was an
obvious choice to be honored with something like this.
The first thing you’ll
notice is the abundance of parts on this item. Besides the two figures, you
have three different nameplates glued to the base. There’s probably more going
on with these than any other one they’ve ever made. We’ve had a complaint of
one that was missing a nameplate, but knock on wood, no reports of mass QC
problems. Manufacturers and designers have come a long way in the last 15
years. In the early days, they couldn’t even get one roly-poly player right,
because they put the bat on his shoulder and the bat always broke off. There
are lessons here about the American design/Chinese manufacturer nexus that go
way beyond bobbleheads. The quality may be laughable
at first, and it may never truly catch up with a first-world product, but it
gets to “good enough” before you know it.
One thing that’s visible in
the picture is that the base of the item isn’t perfectly flat. It’s higher in
the middle than at the ends. I have no idea if they’re all like this. Perhaps
there was a reason why they had to do it. Maybe they felt that the hand on the
one figure would be too close to the head of the other with a flat base. They
got quite a few details right, the most obvious being the dirt on the pants
leg. Also, they do a good job showing the stitching on the hat, which is
visible on the picture below. As usual, some of the painting isn’t fine
art-quality, as you can see around the left arm of the 2012 figure. But as I
like to say, what do you expect for something you got free with a Reds ticket?
The item was sponsored by
consumer products giant Unilever. The interesting thing about that is that
Unilever is a P&G competitor, and P&G pretty much owns Cincinnati.
Unilever put the logo of the parent company, not one of its brands, on the item
and the box. The only way I can interpret this is as a shot across P&G’s
bow. Maybe the Reds thought P&G was indifferent in terms of cross-promotion
and decided to give them a little jab? That’s pure speculation, of course.
For this game, they did the
six-pack ticket promotion, with the special gate for six-pack holders to claim
their item, which happened to be the closest gate to the exit, causing most of
those who wanted multiple bobbles to have to run laps around the stadium. I had
some of the six-pack tickets this year, so I was much less bitter about it than
last year. The crowd was a bit smaller than last year’s Chapman game, so you
could have probably gotten your bobble without being super-early.
An interesting side note is
that the Coliseum next door to the stadium was hosting UFC-style fights that
night, and somebody I know spotted Joey Votto at the
fights. They had pictures. If you check the Reds box score, a sub went in for
Votto at first. The game was a blowout from the get-go, so it was probably
something where they were giving him a rest and he just decided to head on
over. Several Bengals were also spotted, but it isn’t like their season was
going on.
June 4-Aroldis Chapman Bobblehead
Just over 26,000 fans saw
the Reds fall to the Giants 3-2 on this Wednesday night. 25,000 of them
received an Aroldis Chapman bobblehead,
the second of that player given out in as many years. Whenever the giveaway
number is that close to the attendance figure, I assume that every ticket
holder who wanted one got one.
As you can see, this one is
not quite as gimmicky as last year’s, since last year’s had a flame effect
coming from the baseball, alluding to the speed of the coming pitch. They played
it pretty safe, showing him at the top of his windup. While some fans may like
the gimmicks better, one like this without arms and legs sticking out is
unlikely to break in shipment. Considering that some people open the box up
immediately at the ballpark and find broken ones, it doesn’t hurt to make them
a little sturdier from time to time.
This one is sponsored by
Coca-Cola. That’s interesting because Pepsi sponsored all of them in 2001 and
2002, plus a few thereafter. The Cola Wars rage on.
They got the details right
on this one for the most part, but someone pointed out the minor issue of the
face not really resembling that of the actual player. I was like “You’ve been
collecting these this long and you expect otherwise?”
June 21-Ken Griffey Jr. Reds Hall of Fame Bobblehead
A full house of 42,500
showed up on a Saturday afternoon to see the Reds thrash the Blue Jays 11-1
following a tough loss the night before. It was part of the first real hot
streak the Reds had all year. As of this writing, it’s inconclusive as to
whether the streak will keep them in the hunt long-term.
Every year for at least the
last few, the Reds have done a giveaway that coincided with the Reds Hall of
Fame induction ceremony, and the giveaway has been one of the inductees.
Typically, it is a player of recent vintage, as the Reds haven’t done a
Machine-era player in a long time, and might never do another one. This year,
the ceremony didn’t take place that day, but Griffey was an honoree and the
date was the anniversary of his 500th homer.
Ken Griffey, Jr. was an
obvious choice. In spite of the fact that his best days were behind him when he
came to the Reds, he still had some good years, hit quite a few steroid-free
homers, and earned the title Reds Hall of Famer. Maybe his Mariners HOF plaque
should be bigger, but if the likes of Dan Driessen
qualify for the Reds Hall, Junior is an easy argument.
The bobblehead
commemorates his 500th home run. The pose is a follow-through on a
swing. His swing was legendary, so anyone who grew up in the nineties would not
need to read the name on the base to recognize the player. Even though they
made the bat a separate piece to cut down on breakage, the resulting item was
still very fragile. As some of you know, I sell some extras on Ebay sometimes, so I know how well they hold up in
shipping. The two skinny arms sticking out were apparently too much. I’m not
saying every one that shipped broke. It was, in fact, a small minority of them,
less than 10% (unless someone glued it back together and didn’t tell me).
Another noteworthy detail is that the head on this one seems massive to me. I
know the heads are supposed to be big, but this one is like an apple on a
toothpick. But overall, the visual effect is pretty good. If you got one, and
managed to keep it unbroken, you have a nice item that will be identifiable
from across the room. It was sponsored by Cincinnati Bell.
Naturally, when an Ebay bidder gets a broken item from me, I try to make it
right, and in discussing the “injuries” to the dolls, it did create some
flashbacks of Junior’s career here. I mentioned it to the bidders in my
replies, too. One of the bidders was out near Seattle, and I felt a little bad
about that comment. Every fan around Cincinnati is in on the joke, but
Seattle-area fans may have different recollections of Junior.
On the whole, I have a
positive opinion of Junior. Like many things in life, Junior’s Reds tenure was
just something that didn’t work out. Not all players are going to be
indestructible balls of energy like Pete Rose. Not all of them are going to
“work” ball like Barry Bonds instead of playing ball. Junior was always taught
to have fun out there, and he took the advice at face value. I remember reading
about his aversion to the weight room as early as the mid-nineties. He played
long seasons on rock-hard turf. He never hid
anything. Everything was out there, pointing to late-career injuries, and the
Reds signed him anyway. A nineties-era Griffey would not have moved the 2000’s
Reds to championships, anyway. With the skinflint ownership and lack of young
prospects, his best season would have made the Reds .500, at best. What we got,
as all the PED news broke, was one slugger who didn’t cheat, when so many
others did.
July 12-Billy Hamilton Bobblehead
A full house of 42,800
showed up for a rare Saturday summer night game where the Pirates beat the Reds
6 to 5. A Saturday night game against a divisional rival is one of the few
times this year where they could pack the place without offering discount
tickets. The giveaway certainly didn’t hurt. This was the most anticipated bobblehead in a while, as it featured a rookie whose game
was just heating up.
As you can see, the item is
a running pose, since Hamilton’s signature skill is his speed. They pulled this
one off pretty well. For the second time this year, they have one with the
wider base. These are, no doubt, more expensive to make. This one was sponsored
by PNC Bank, and the sponsors seem to be sparing no expense this year.
This was one of the
sought-after bobbleheads in quite a while, if Ebay prices are any indication. They were getting prices in
the mid-thirties pretty easily, and may have even topped $40 shortly after the
game. That’s pretty much unheard of these days. Most of them get from the
mid-twenties to the low thirties with the seller paying shipping. With cheap
Reds tickets becoming almost nonexistent, the business of running for bobbleheads has really become a grind, where sellers are
making maybe $5 per doll if they have to pay runners. There was a little extra
for them this time.
If there’s not a lot of
money in running for bobbles, where will collectors get them if they can’t come
to the game? Well, I’ve seen a handful of people buying bobbleheads
inside the stadium, and usually, they are trying to buy dirt-cheap, perhaps for
five bucks. If they really are picking up many of them, there’s a ton of money
to be made. But in my mind, the Reds wouldn’t take too kindly to unauthorized
commerce taking place inside the stadium. I would think that such behavior is
grounds for being kicked out. Maybe some people do it on the sly, but I’ve
never been tempted to try it. I like to go to Reds games, and I don’t want to
explain to someone that the Reds have banned me from the stadium.
One source of bobbleheads for sale might be from the casual Ebay seller. With the Ebay mobile
app, a person can sell something on the spot. If 2% of the people who get bobbleheads are casual Ebayers
who don’t feel like they need the item, that’s 500 of them out there for sale.
August 6-Jay Bruce Bobblehead
Almost 34,000 people showed up
the night of August 6 to see the Reds beat the Indians 8-3. Most of them walked
out with the fifth out of six bobbleheads, featuring
Jay Bruce. The popularity of this item faces some stiff headwinds, most notably
the fact that this is the third time they’ve honored Bruce and also the fact
that he was having a pretty bad year as of the time of the giveaway. But the
item itself had some things going for it.
This is a first, at least
for a Reds bobble. As you can see, the figure isn’t touching the base. They
have him jumping against an outfield fence, robbing a home run from an opposing
batter. Like the Griffey one, this one had a problem with breakage. The glove
hand proved fragile and was prone to breaking off. It seems that anything with
an outstretched arm this year was too delicate to withstand the rigors of a
ballpark giveaway, not to mention shipment to an Ebay
buyer.
Above, you can see how they
did it. The figure is attached to the fence in two places. This requires some
good quality control, at least by the standards of ballpark novelties. After
all, the feet are usually what attaches one of these to the base, and not only
are the feet normally close together (they might even be one piece), but
gravity is also in favor of keeping everything together. Time will tell if any
of these will fall prey to the laws of physics, but in the short run, they seem
pretty solid.
It’s a pretty good visual
effect from the front. I have to say they pulled this off well. It was
sponsored by the Ohio Lottery, an entity that seems to sponsor one per year. I
guess one question we can think about is whether any other gambling
establishments will get to sponsor them, now that legal gambling has been
expanded here.
The Reds are drawing well of
late. The Chapman game in early June barely drew the 25,000 needed to have a
fan for every bobblehead. This game was halfway
between the June attendance and a sellout. You can credit the giveaway, and you
can credit whatever is left of the inter-league novelty, but in fact they drew
similar numbers the prior homestand against a
mediocre Arizona team. Good weather helps, and we’ve had a run of it. But
they’re farther down in the standings than they have been in a while. They’re
certainly doing something to bump the attendance, so if you are looking for a
hot giveaway on a weeknight, show up early and don’t assume a lousy 16,000
attendance figure, at least not in summer.
August 23-Mr. Redlegs 2015 All-Star Game Bobblehead
A full house of 41,500 saw
the Reds defeat the Braves 1-0 on good pitching and for this year, a typical
amount of offense. Sadly, the win did nothing more than stop the bleeding of a
long losing streak, one that put the team well under .500. This game was what I
call a weak sellout, where plenty of standing room remained and there was no
issue of anyone who wanted in getting turned away. I would say most of the
seats were sold before the losing streak. A long rain delay didn’t help the
experience that night, and when the final out came, only the die-hards were
still in the stands. No matter how many leave early, though, they’ll never rain
a sellout out. Not without the kind of rain that caused Noah to load up the
ark.
As if to say “wait ‘til next
year” with style, the Reds gave the first 25,000 through the gates an
outstanding reminder of what’s coming in July of 2015.
This was the last of a
record six bobbleheads that the team gave out this
year. It features the popular Mr. Redlegs mascot
wearing an All-Star Game t-shirt, in anticipation of next year’s game in
Cincinnati. The base lists every year the Reds have hosted an All-Star game.
The official logo for the
All-Star game, released some weeks prior to this promotion,
is in the style Mr. Redlegs, which shows just how
popular this mascot is. The interesting thing about this bobble is that the
shirt the figure is wearing does not sport the recently-revealed logo. If I had
to guess, I’d say that when they ordered the bobbles, they didn’t have the logo
finalized yet. They just knew it would involve Mr. Redlegs.
Maybe they thought that producing these bobblheads
would cause someone to leak the logo and ruin the surprise.
As you can see, compared to
the player bobbles, with their elaborate poses, this one is a return to a simpler
design. Simpler certainly doesn’t mean worse, though, as this is an attractive
item that may stand the test of time better than the others. The Reds aren’t
trading Mr. Redlegs, after all, and he isn’t going to
have a bad year at the plate.
This item was produced by
Forever Collectibles, a familiar name to those who have collected bobbleheads of the modern era. They’ve never done a Reds SGA.
They did do the Pete Rose Farewell to Cinergy one in 2002, which was not
affiliated with the Reds due to the ban. There’s no sponsor, either. The Reds
apparently paid for this one themselves. This does leave open the possibility
that the Reds may sell a similar or identical item in their gift shop,
something known as the retail version among hobbyists. In fact, there appears
to be a UPC on the box, although it is covered with some other type of barcode.
In the early days of the SGA
bobblehead era, “retail” was a dirty word. Since the
SGA version might cost triple digits, a collector who paid for one would want
to make sure he wasn’t buying something that sold in a retail store for $25 or
$30. Usually, a sponsor logo tells you that you have
the SGA. SGA’s without sponsor logos, like the “Farewell” Rose, were likely to
have their value diluted by a retail version that was identical. Thus began the
tradition of asking for game-day tickets along with bobbles. But you really can’t
say for sure that the ticket and the bobble weren’t paired up at a later date,
could you?
Nowadays, the retail wrinkle
isn’t quite as important. The SGA’s are going to sell in the secondary market
for about what a retail version would, so there’s no sense of being cheated. If
an identical retail version comes out, this item will just have to stand on its
own as a souvenir, and it does this quite well. If retail and SGA are
identical, then for better or for worse, the retail version is the SGA, and you
can complete your set by buying one off the shelf.